“And if this regrettable lack in one of imperial lineage was beyond the comprehension of the simple, at the least the parson with his booklearning might have guessed it. Maybe he did. He was a grammarian, and could doubtless see further into the future than others.” - JRRT, Farmer Giles of Ham
Scottish is closer to Dutch ( Frisian - Fries - ) “Kennen” is to know and consequently the Scots use it similarly. You only have to go to Edinburgh to hear the natives still saying “ ye ken?” which is an equivalent for - do you know what I mean or USA “ right?” . Canny is used a lot in modern Scots’ and it means knowledgable or clever but also comely or attractive and it’s used stretches as far down as Newcastle which is full of Scottish migrants. So uncanny literally means not known or not of this world. This is from a Scot herself!
Excellent article. There's still a lot of Scots spoken across Scotland and I know a fair few people who write poetry in the Scots. I agree with you though, there probably are no longer any monolingual Scots around these days. But then Scots (although actually a language) isn't spoken as a language these days, when spoken it's always mixed in with English, though some writers probably still write in 'proper' Scots.
Very interesting and entertaining. To help understand any Scots passages I encounter, I always try to "hear" it in my mind in the Glaswegian accent of my late step-grandmother.
Of course other Scots like Adam Smith and David Hume were simultaneously embracing the Enlightenment.
The connection of 'grime' and 'mask' is still to be found in modern Dutch. The word 'grime' means make-up for the theatre and film. The related verb is 'grimeren' and the related profession is 'grimeur'. Stock skills involve ageing actors, applying moustaches and beards - so a proper mask application in paint.
“And if this regrettable lack in one of imperial lineage was beyond the comprehension of the simple, at the least the parson with his booklearning might have guessed it. Maybe he did. He was a grammarian, and could doubtless see further into the future than others.” - JRRT, Farmer Giles of Ham
Scottish is closer to Dutch ( Frisian - Fries - ) “Kennen” is to know and consequently the Scots use it similarly. You only have to go to Edinburgh to hear the natives still saying “ ye ken?” which is an equivalent for - do you know what I mean or USA “ right?” . Canny is used a lot in modern Scots’ and it means knowledgable or clever but also comely or attractive and it’s used stretches as far down as Newcastle which is full of Scottish migrants. So uncanny literally means not known or not of this world. This is from a Scot herself!
Excellent article. There's still a lot of Scots spoken across Scotland and I know a fair few people who write poetry in the Scots. I agree with you though, there probably are no longer any monolingual Scots around these days. But then Scots (although actually a language) isn't spoken as a language these days, when spoken it's always mixed in with English, though some writers probably still write in 'proper' Scots.
This is so interesting!
Thank you! Since I just learned the German origin of unheimlich, this made me very happy.
Very interesting and entertaining. To help understand any Scots passages I encounter, I always try to "hear" it in my mind in the Glaswegian accent of my late step-grandmother.
Of course other Scots like Adam Smith and David Hume were simultaneously embracing the Enlightenment.
The connection of 'grime' and 'mask' is still to be found in modern Dutch. The word 'grime' means make-up for the theatre and film. The related verb is 'grimeren' and the related profession is 'grimeur'. Stock skills involve ageing actors, applying moustaches and beards - so a proper mask application in paint.